Donald Trump ramped up his feud with former Miss Universe Alicia Machado on Friday, calling her “disgusting” and accusing her of having a sex tape.
Democratic candidate Hillary Clinton referenced Machado in Monday night’s presidential debate. Machado, who is from Venezuela, said that Trump bullied her after she gained weight, calling her “Miss Piggy” and an “eating machine.” She then appeared in an ad for Clinton, revealing more details about the GOP nominee’s fat-shaming.
Trump lashed out at Machado after the ad went viral, telling “Fox and Friends” on Tuesday that she was “the worst [Miss Universe] we ever had. She was impossible.” He doubled down on Wednesday, claiming that he was actually helping Machado by bullying her because Miss Universe officials wanted to fire her for gaining weight. Trump campaign manager Kellyanne Conway continued to push that narrative on Thursday.
But then Friday rolled around, and Trump continued to take aim at the former beauty queen, telling Twitter users to “check out [her] sex tape” and alleging that Clinton helped her get U.S. citizenship in exchange for the campaign ad.
Machado on Friday called Trump’s attacks “slander and cheap lies.”
“The Republican candidate and his campaign team again are generating attacks, insults and trying to revive slurs and false accusations about my life,” she said in an Instagram post. “All of this in order to intimidate me, humiliate me and throw me off balance once again ... with this, he seeks to distract the attention from his real problems and his incapacity to pretend to be the leader of this great country.
Clinton said that the Twitter rants were “unhinged, even for Trump.”
Keep fighting the good fight, Donald. Just don’t be surprised when it costs you the women’s vote in November.
This post has been updated to include a response from Machado and Clinton.
Editor’s note: Donald Trump regularly incites political violence and is a serial liar, rampant xenophobe, racist, misogynist and birther who has repeatedly pledged to ban all Muslims — 1.6 billion members of an entire religion — from entering the U.S.